Wheeled toy



Feb. 28, 1928. v 1,660,783

I. BERGER WHEELED TOY Filed Aug. 2a. 1926 Fig.1.

mvgzmon BY 4 v ATT I Y rsanonn BERGER, or nnwanmnnw JERSEY, Assmnon 'ro ELIZABETH 1-1. 01mm, on

' NEW YORK, 1v. Y.

wrrnnnnn TOY.

Application filed August28, 1926. Serial No. 132,097.

My invention is a new and useful improvement in wheeled toys and relates more particularly to the driving mechanism therefor. j

An object of my invention is to provide a'sheet metal toy of simple constructlonand attractive outline such as a trolley car-or automobile or a representation of any well known wheeled device.

Another object is to provide a novel driving mechanism for the toy which has a locking means to prevent rotation of the driving wheels'when the same are out of contact with the supporting surface for the toy.

The invention consists in the improved construction of parts and elements, and their aggroupment in operative relation, to be more fully described hereinafter and the novelty of which will be particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed.

I have fully and clearly illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention in the accompanying drawings to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the toy with parts broken away,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the driving mechanism,

Figure 3 is a detail section on the line 33 of Figure 2, and

Figure 4: is a detail of the blank from 'which the support for the driving mechanism is formed.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The numeral 1 designates a wheeled toy which is here shown in the form of a trolley car. The toy is preferably made of Sheet metal, though any suitable material may be employed in its construction. The car 1 has the usual trolley pole 2 and pulley 3 mounted thereon. The body 4 is mounted on wheels 5, 5 which are supported in journal bearings bent from the support 6, as 7 7.

7 The support 6 has lugs or ears 8, 8 extending outwardly from its sides in the plane of the bottom 9. These lugs engage the boo", 1 to retain the support 6 in place in the body 4 when the toy is assembled. The sides 10, 11 of the support are bent upwardly and are provided with diametrically opposed sets of bearings 12, 12 and 13, 13 in which the shafts 14: 15 of the driving mechanism are mounted. A pawl 16 is bent from the side 11 of the support to lie in the path of a ratchet wheel 17 which is fixed tothe shaft 14. A semi-annular portion 18 which lies adjacent the journal'bearing 7 of one of the driving wheels 5 is cut-and bent from the bottom' 9 to lie in spaced parallelrelation to the bearingZ. The upper or inner edge p 19 of'theportion 18 isprovided with a tooth 20 for a -purp'ose to'b'e presently described. 1

The bearing 7 which lies adjacent the por- Mon 18 has an elongated slot: to receive the axle '22 as distinguished from the circular bearingfor the other end of the said axle, The slot 21is vertical when the wheels 5, 5 are upon a horizontal surface and it is therefore evident that the end of the shaft or axle 22 will be movable to the top of the slot when the wheels 5, 5 carry the weight of the car. The weight of a'single wheel 5'is sufficient however to carry the axle 22 to the bottom of the slot 21. The axle22 is square or rectangular intermediate its ends to receive a detent or catch 23 and hold the same in positive .fixed relation to its-shaft 22. The detent is positioned on the shaft so as to overlie the portion 18. The detent is preferably made substantially U-shaped in cross-section as is clear from Figure 2 so that the base of the U portion will engage the tooth 20 during one direction of rotation'of the shaft when the shaft is at the base of the slot 21, to prevent rotation of the shaft 22.

The shaft 14 is provided with acoil spring 24 which is fixed at 25 to the ratchet wheel 17 andat 26 to the gear wheel 27. A compound gear 28 on the shaft 15 engages gear wheel 27 and also a cog or pinion 29 on the axle 22 so'that energy stored in the spring 24 will be imparted to the wheels, 5, 5 on the axle 22 to rotate the same anddrive the car 1.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows: The car is raised from the floor for winding, immediately the de'tent 23 will drop into engagementwith the tooth20 and the spring 2 1 may be wound up by the key 30 without the necessity of holding the wheels 5, 5. Now whent-he spring hasbeen wound and is held under tensionQbetween pawl 16 and detent 23 it may be released by raising the wheels or the axle which carries them and the detent 23 to thereby move the detent out of contact with thetooth 20 and release the spring'24. It is of course evident that 'this'would be accomplished by placing the car on the floor or otherwise sup f porting the car on its Wheels.

Havingthus deseribed myinventiony I claim:

1. A Wheeled toy including a support,

journal bearings depending from saidsup- .port, an axle journaled in said bearings, one

of said bearings being vertieally slotted,

stantially parallel thereto, said portion having a tooth on its inner periphery and a de+ tentearried by-said axle in the. plane of-said portion.

Wheeled toy, including a support, pairsz of z journaled bearings depending from' said support, an axle journaled in each-pair of bearings, a pair of surface engaging Wheels on each sald axle, one of said bearings beingsletted for vertical movement of the axle journaled therein, a. semi-annular portion. depending from said support around said vertically movable axle, a toot-h on the inner. periphery of said portion, and

a substantially U-sliaped detent fixed on said Vertically-movable axle substantially in the plane of said portion, said. detent being,

adapted to, engage sai'dtooth whensaid ver-v tieally movable axle is at the bottom of'said slotted hearing}; I v p V In testimony whereof, I l have signedrmy name to thisespecifieation this124th day ofv Augnst,-1926.- m p ISADORE BERGER; 

